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“That’s easy,” I reply every damn time. “You stop struggling. You go with the flow. Eventually, the current will take you back to shore.”
But it’s hard to believe that when the water is full of monsters.
ChapterThirty-Four
Without waiting to see if the other Guardians followed, Leaf walked onto the porch of the Twelve’s house and inhaled the crisp, fresh air. The night was clear of clouds. The moon shone brightly, but it wasn’t quite full. It would be in a few nights’ time—during Samhain.
If Maebh wanted a power boost for her war, she’d picked the night where the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest.
He scrutinized the night. Leaf had never seen the Sluagh training on this lawn, but all six stood in a line at the center. He’d never witnessed them in battle, but each moved with the confidence of apex predators.
Until recently, they often glamoured away more frightening aspects of their appearances. Two had horns protruding from their heads—one set was small, the other long and like a satyr. They also had tails lashing irritably at their rear ends. But the taint had made honest fae out of all of them it seemed.
Under the bright moon, their pale skin almost glowed. Even the Sluagh, with a darker color, seemed paler tonight, almost like they were afraid of something. The talons of their tattered wings rested on their shoulders, and the rest draped behind them like a cape. Each somehow blurred or vibrated sporadically, as though they were unsettled and violently twitched.
Footsteps shuffled behind Leaf and then stopped as each of the Guardians joined him.
“Do you hear that?” Rush’s deep voice was low.
“Buzzing,” Thorne replied. “Like swarming bees.”
“The souls they keep must be restless,” River murmured.
Leaf couldn’t care less. He jogged down the steps and strode across the dewy grass toward Legion, the leader of the Six, with his long dark hair moving about his face like a silken shadow. Six sets of wholly black eyes tracked Leaf as he approached.
A few decades ago, he wouldn’t have been caught dead meeting these predators at night—their prime hunting time. But after the Well-blessed women arrived at the Order, these Sluagh were lured from hiding by the temptation of unique and tasty human souls. Fortunately, that never happened, and Leaf had never known why.
“I’m assuming you’ve already rifled through my mind and figured out that I know how to unmake Maebh,” Leaf said, trying to anticipate their reasons for being here. “And if you’ve been spying on the events inside, you’ll have learned about news that the coming battle is here, not Cornucopia.” His jaw firmed and he tensed, sure to put enough warning into his glare for his next words. “You’ll know what we suspect Nova’s unique gift does, but the answer is no. You cannot now, nor ever, lay a hand on my mate—I don’t care if it’s to…”
Legion canted his head, and his skull flickered beneath his flesh. Energy rippled over Leaf’s skin like a hot gust from an open oven. The wind somehow transferredinsidehis clothing, rippled along his arms to lift the hairs, then tightened like ghostly fingers around his throat.
We do not need your mate’s gift, Legion said into Leaf’s mind.We are beings of the ink, not the light.
Leaf tried to exhale, but the ghostly fingers squeezed tighter.
Understood,Leaf sent back to Legion.
The pressure around Leaf’s neck evaporated. Legion’s skull flickered beneath his skin once more, signaling his wraith form had returned to his body.
“Yes,” Legion said aloud. “We are aware of the coming battle, but it is not for the reason you state.” His dark eyes shifted over Leaf’s shoulder to where the others prowled the lawn, slowly circling into a position around the Six.
Leaf rubbed his throat. At least they weren’t standing on the porch like cowards while he was being choked. Probably his own fault, though. The more he fell in love with Nova, the more protective and irrational he became. And he had no boundary when she wasn’t there to draw a line in the sand.
Laurel and Violet remained on the porch, both with weapons in their hands. But Clarke walked toward Rush on the lawn with no sense of the danger she headed into.
He had a sudden flash of the argument he’d overhead on the night he’d left the Order. What was it he’d overheard Clarke shout?
Unlike the hostile looks the Six had given Leaf, they watched Clarke and Rush approach with open curiosity.
“Maebh summons the Wild Hunt.” Legion’s tone was strained. “As Samhain draws near, we lose control over the souls we keep.”
“I thought you weren’t beholden to Maebh anymore,” Clarke pointed out.
Bodin bared his fangs. “Weare not, but the Horde is.”
Legion’s head tilted toward his second. Something passed between them. Each of the Six bristled as though displeased with the Hive’s private conversation. With a flash of respect, Leaf sensed Legion was pulling them into order. Managing a team wasn’t easy.
Eventually, the buzzing quietened, and tension fled the atmosphere.
